Two firms institute programme for youth employment (23/7/09)

A BUSINESS Process Outsourcing (BPO) company, Rising Data Solution Ghana (RDS), and Intercom Programming and Manufacturing Company Limited (IPMC) have instituted a programme to provide jobs for the youth.
Under the programme, IPMC will provide training in Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) for a number of Ghanaians, while RDS will employ directly the students on completion of the course.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between IPMC, an ICT training institution and RDS to authenticate the initiative.
By this agreement, IPMC will teach courses specifically designed for the BPO industry. Some of the courses include, accent neutralisation, transcription and customer service technique.
The Director of Finance of RDS, Ms Irene Banias, signed for RDS, while the CEO of IPMC, Mr Amar Deep S Hari, initialled for the IPMC.
The Business Development Manager of RDS, Mr A. J. Whitman, said the BPO industry was one huge sector the country could tap into in order to create jobs for the unemployed youth.
He mentioned, for instance, that the industry was valued at $110 billion in 2002 and was estimated to increase to about $175 billion by 2010.
The CEO of IPMC, Mr Amar Hari, commended RDS for taking the giant step to invest in the country and, particularly in the BPO sector.
Mr Hari said he had for a long time sourced for partners in that particular area of ICT and was happy RDS had come on board.
He also encouraged the management of RDS to venture into the rural areas of the country as there existed a lot of potential that needed to be tapped.
The CEO said in an effort to empower women, IPMC had 40 per cent allocation for women and hoped to increase it in the coming years, calling on RDS to do same.
The Director of IT Enabled Service Secretariat Ghana, Mr Alhassan Umar, assured management of RDS of the government’s support as job creation for the youth was its top priority.
Mr Alhassan said the government had initiated moves to solve the problem of redundancy which the PBO service providers and others were facing in the country.
He mentioned the landing station soon to be completed by GLO 1 as a measure under way to solve the problem in the short term.